Content Ideation

What is Content that
Converts?

When creating a blog, it isn’t enough to create blog posts that are somewhat relevant your product. The goal is to create content that is so useful, so timely, and so relevant that it draws in potential customers who already have a need for your product. Content that converts is a way to describe a focused content strategy that allows you to brainstorm blog ideas that actually help your customers. At SocialSEO, we have developed strategies that help organizations identify types of content that draw in potential customers and how to revise one’s content strategy toward a more narrow focus on those who will ultimately convert into sales.

A Guide to Identifying
Content Topics That Convert

1. Understand your customer’s pain points: One of the most
valuable lines of research for your content team is the idea of what your
customers need, want, or find challenging. If they don’t have a software
solution like the one you offer, what potential issues does this spark? If they
have a different software solution that doesn’t offer the same features you do,
what is slowing them down or gumming up the works? Understanding your
customer’s dissatisfactions, either with a competitor’s product or because they
don’t have a product at all, helps you to realize what they look for once they
begin searching for a solution online.

2. Brainstorm content that addresses specific pain points: Rather
than allowing your ideas to stem from your own product, direct them toward the
pain points of your potential leads. Do they need hacks for saving time on a specific
process? Do they want a solution that is more customizable to their needs? Let
your team come up with a range of ideas, but make sure the core topics are focused
on those pain points. If you only focus on your own product, more of the ideas
will feel “sales-y” rather than how-to focused. This may seem like a
roundabout approach, but the more you focus on offering solutions to the issues
your customers face, the more ways you will find to relate the content back to
your product.

3. Select keywords based on intent: Our final tip for writing content that converts is to identify specific keywords that target your customers’ pain points. Keywords are the bridge between what your customers need and what you can provide. By now, you should have a list of ideas for useful content and understand what your customers are looking for. The next step is finding keywords with search volume that satisfy their intent. Beginning with relevant keyword ideas is an important step, since readers can recognize if a resource was solely written for SEO. We suggest using a keyword research tool such as Google Ads Keyword Planner to complete this step. Then, let the keywords be driven by the content. Integrate your top keyword phrases throughout the content in ways that are both useful and easy to read, rather than stuffing in as many keywords as you can.

3. Pick keywords based on
these ideas: Beginning with thoughtful, useful ideas is an important step,
since readers can now tell if a resource was just written for SEO and not to be
read in reality. By brainstorming first, you can then go and find keywords that
are connected, putting the horse before the cart. Let the keywords be driven by
the useful content, rather than trying to stuff as many keywords as you can
into content that doesn’t help very much.

Diagnosing Issues with
Content Ideation

1. Incorrect Target Audience: Sometimes you can write great
content that ends up reaching people without the decision-making power to make
the purchase himself or herself. The Solution: Note the kinds of leads
generated from your posts, realign your brainstorming to your target buyer
persona, and keep him or her in mind as you ideate.

2. Not Generating Enough Traffic: Your posts may be stellar but aren’t getting read very much. The solution? Consider posting more frequently on social media, interlinking more posts, and incorporating more high-level keywords for increased organic search engine traffic.

3. Not Converting at a High Rate: Despite high traffic rates and reaching your target audience, some posts just don’t seem to connect to sales. The solution: Pay close attention to the posts with the highest conversion rates and emulate their success. Have a usability tester try searching keywords related to your posts and see how easy or hard it is to click through to the product sales pages from your blog – you might have a broken link or a simple change that could make exploring sales easier.